4WD VS Winter Tyres - Do you need winter tyres if you have 4WD?

Quattro VS XDrive!    • Audi Quattro VS BMW XDrive VS Jaguar ...  

As requested in comments I will be doing all season vs winter tyres AND 4wd vs 2wd on the same tyres so make sure you subscribe! http://bit.ly/2p6kKXq.

  / jonathan__benson  

I've lost track the amount of times I've read "you don't need winter tyres if you have four wheel drive", so I thought I'd do the test. Two BMW X1 vehicles, one is front wheel drive (FWD) with winter tyres, and one of four wheel drive (4WD / 4x4 / AWD) with summer tyres fitted.

The winter tyre 2wd vehicle has Goodyear Ultragrip Performance Gen-1 and the summer tyre 4wd has the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3. Both tyres are in the same size and load rating (225/50 R17) and have the same tyre pressures.

The tests in the video include acceleration and braking on snow, snow handling, snow hill climb, snow braking on a hill, and obstacle avoidance.

Which combination of drive train and tyres was best? You'll have to watch the video :)

Note, I know I use 4x4 and AWD interchangeably in the video. The BMW X1 is AWD, but you would have a similar result with FWD.

Winter tyres are sometimes called snow tyres.

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Further information on the tyres talked about in this video can be found on the Tyre Reviews website

http://www.tyrereviews.com

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The music in the video is by the excellent Lakey Inspired, go follow his soundcloud!

lakey inspired - holding on -   / holding-on  

lakey inspired - me 2 -   / me-2-feat-julian-avila